There were a collective gasp in the room when a map on a projector showed the size of the area in Naas that might experience an audible hum if a planned data centre campus is built in the Co Kildare town.

“Jesus,” one man muttered.

He was one of more than 200 people who showed up to a public meeting on Thursday night about plans to built large data centres in the area.

People who live more than 2km away from a data centre in Clondalkin, west Dublin, have lodged complaints about noise levels, with some saying they can’t sleep.

Clondalkin is a cautionary tale, the crowd is told. It’s too late for them, but not for Naas.

Extra chairs had to be carried into the function room at the Osprey Hotel as people continued to spill into the venue before the meeting. Organisers said they had expected about 80 people to show up; much more than double that amount did.

Planners last year gave the green light to a high-profile €3 billion data centre complex – proposed by Herbata Ltd – next to the M7 motorway and business park in Naas.

However, the future of this cloud storage facility remains very much up in the clouds.

Kildare County Council approved the plan in August 2025 with dozens of conditions attached, many of which relate to energy use.

A month later, environmental groups lodged an appeal against the decision, warning it would dramatically increase electricity demand based on fossil fuels and undermine Ireland’s climate commitments.

Herbata said it would not draw electricity from the national grid and would eventually rely completely on renewables for its energy.

An Coimisiún Pleanála is expected to rule on the appeal by January.

“If you think about Clondalkin, where they are now – the residents are complaining, they can’t sleep at night-time, and it’s built. That data centre is not going anywhere,” Krystle Foley, of the Kildare Data Centre Awareness Campaign, told the crowd.

“We’re on the other side. We’ve got areas that are zoned for data centres, but the data centres aren’t built.”

Clondalkin may be a cautionary tale for Naas, but Ireland is a cautionary tale for the world.

Several speakers referenced a recent UN report that described the Republic as “a live cautionary example” of energy demand running ahead of infrastructure due, in large part, to data centres and artificial intelligence.

Data centres accounted for almost a quarter of the electricity consumed in Ireland last year, up from 5 per cent in 2015, according to the Central Statistics Office.

Speaking from the floor, Mark Walsh, an associate professor in maths at Maynooth University, said the drive for more data centres was “mostly fuelled by the AI arms race” and led by “a tiny number of ultra wealthy individuals”.

“These are essentially Bond-villain capitalists … the Musks, the Bezoses, the Zuckerbergs.”

While he singled out men who own the world’s biggest tech companies, Walsh said: “Public enemy number one in terms of driving data centres upon us is the current occupant of the White House.”

Noting that US president Donald Trump is due to come to Ireland next week, he called on “anyone who’s opposed to data centres” to protest against the visit. Many people cheered at this suggestion.

Some in the crowd acknowledged that Ireland needed data centres in general but – as the Republic hosts 10 times the European per capita average – said we already had more than our fair share.

Several attendees were critical of the fact that certain land in Naas was zoned exclusively for data centres under the Local Area Plan 2021-2027.

Mayor of Naas Bill Clear told the crowd he visited the site of the Clondalkin data centre on Wednesday, saying the whistling noise he heard “was almost like if you had tinnitus”.

As he spoke, some people shouted that he had previously supported land being zoned for data centres.

Speaking to The Irish Times after the event, the Independent Ireland councillor said his view – and the public’s view – of data centres had changed. He said there was once “very little pushback”, but this was no longer the case.

“At one time in my life, I would have said, ‘Look, we need it. We’re all using our phones for this, that and the other, social media, TikTok, whatever. But then I went over and I saw what was in Clondalkin and I was absolutely shocked.”

Clear will next week put forward a motion at Kildare County Council that proposes rezoning land earmarked for data centre for agricultural use. By his own admission, it is unlikely to pass.

Local woman Liz Denieffe said awareness about data centres had grown in recent months.

“Whether it’s noise pollution, water, electricity, I think people are really getting a much deeper understanding of what these data centres mean.”

Denieffe added that “some unpleasant things” have been said about people who object to data centres.

“But I think tonight shows the people who are objecting are highly informed … So it’s not about being backward or not understanding. In fact, it’s the opposite.

“We have a very deep understanding of what’s happening, and we just don’t want them.”